Owes much to Se7en, but is still pretty solid.

Samiam3

It's grim, it's gloomy and morally twisted. The Killing Gene is entertaining in darkest of manners. At times, it feels like a forerunner to Law Abiding Citizen only with more subtlety, but it would be more appropriate to think of The Killing Gene as an indie version of Se7en (we all remember that film right?)

The story appears to be set in the city that never sleeps. What we have here is Selma Blair taking on a Jigsaw(Saw series) persona killing her chosen victims using a kind of Milgram's experiment (which I won't describe for obvious reasons). Detective Eddie Argo and his new partner are on the case investigating the appearance of bodies as they start to pop up with an algebraic formula carved on them. Eddie knows something that he is not telling the department, something that may catch up with him before he catches up with the killer.

For a good eighty minutes, this killer thriller growls like a lion, angry but stable. It waits to let out its roar until the climax, which turns out to be the film's Achilles heal. I was fairly impressed by the Killing Gene's ability to avoid getting convoluted, but make no mistake, nothing lasts forever. It has a sloppily presented finale, which is stagey, badly acted, and is a lousy pay off for what at the beginning seemed to be an important element.

I've always had a sort of liking for Stellan Skaresgard, even though he lacks charisma. His screen presence here while somewhat torpid, is surprisingly compelling. He evokes the persona of a man who is hiding a lot. A cynical person could easily see him as cardboard, but bit by bit, he starts to make more sense. the same cannot be said of Melissa George. Her character is pointless, and seems to have no real place in the script. Selma Blair has no acting ability whatsoever. In some films, she has gotten away with her emo persona, but this may be the worst entry in her resume yet.

I'm not sure which part of New York this film is set in, but if I though it was as psychedelic looking as this, I may go just for a photo shoot. the Killing Gene is lit like a comic book, sometimes matching John Carpenter's vision in Escape from New York, only without the street fires and the wrecked cars.

The whole thing works. I am not an easy person to creep out, but The Killing Gene occasionally got under my skin. Just imagine what it would do to a squeamish person. If you were in to Saw or Se7en, I think you'll find The Killing Gene a fairly worthy investment of your time, for a rainy night.

score 7/10

Samiam3 29 May 2010

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2256802/